TNAG-0281-FCO40-317-Visit-of-the-Chancellor-of-the-Duchy-of-Lancaster-to-Hong-Ko-1970 — Page 140

Registry

No.

"CURITY CLASSIFICATION

Top Secret.

Secret.

Confidential.

DRAFT

speech

To:-

The National Press Club of

Type 1 +

From

The Chancellor of the

Luchy of Lancaster Telephone No. & Ext.

Restricted. Unclassified.

PRIVACY MARKING

In Confidence

Australia ·

Department

I am very

I am very honoured to be here today.

glad to have the opportunity of explaining to

this audience why Britain wants to join the

European Communities if fair terms can be obtained, and why in the long term we believe that this is very

much in the interest of our Australian friends too.

2.

Of course

I am sure that Australians understand very well the need for a greater European Community

which includes Britain. Until twenty years or so ago your links with Europe were almost entirely

with or in terms of the British Isles. Anglo-Australian ties, historical and practical, remair. very strong; we have been reminded forcibly of this by the visit of Her Majesty your Queen to Australia in this Cook bicentrary year. But today you, like

indeed the British people, have much more direct experience of other European countries through trade

and travel and every sort of contact.

herself is becoming more cosmopolitan with the

arrival of new Australians from the continent of

Australia

Europe. I believe you see clearly, perhaps more

clearly than some of our own people, that the European group including Britain has a family

likeness and a need for unity.

(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500M 2/69 Aw.

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